Ferrari were the closest team to Brawn at Monaco – but can they repeat their form at Turkey this weekend?

Felipe Massa has won the last three Turkish Grands Prix. If his F60 is on the pace he looks a strong bet to become the second driver to beat Jenson Button to victory this year.

Jenson Button is playing down his chances of winning the world championship. But the reality of the situation heading into round seven of the 2009 world championship is that anyone who reckons they can beat him to the title needs to start taking serious points off him:

The Brawn-Mercedes BGP001 doesn’t have any serious flaws. It’s only significant performance deficit is in the wet, or when going wheel-to-wheel with a KERS-equipped rival.

This weekend its closest challengers are likely to be the Red Bull RB5 and Ferrari F60.

Red Bull’s car struggled for performance at Monte-Carlo: they couldn’t get the super-soft tyre to work, and it’s possible that their problems were aggravated by their efforts to get their new double diffuser working.

But the RB5 showed excellent pace at Catalunya which, like Istanbul, rewards aerodynamics efficiency. Expect them to be up with the Brawns this weekend.

Another team that impressed at Catalunya were Ferrari. Massa took fourth on the grid despite being at least three kilos heavier than all the cars in front of him.

If there’s any track where Massa can get the most out of the F60, it’s Istanbul – he’s won the last three races from pole position and led 151 of 174 laps.

Should Ferrari find themselves between the Brawns and Red Bulls, they could play a decisive role in the championship. At Spain, Massa kept Vettel behind almost all race, allowing Button to stretch his lead in the race and the championship.

But if Vettel gets away in the lead and Button finds himself bottled up behind a KERS-powered F60, it could be the result we need to inject some life into the championship battle.

Drivers to watch at Istanbul

Felipe Massa – Ferrari’s form is on an upward trajectory, KERS could be especially useful here, and Massa has always been strong at Istanbul. Could it add up to the Scuderia’s first win of 2009?

Rubens Barrichello - Can he do anything to stop his team mate riot once again?

Lewis Hamilton – Has had tyre woes at both the Turkish Grands Prix he’s contested. He’ll be looking at those warm track temperatures and the soft Bridgestone tyre with concern.

Mark Webber – Has beaten Vettel in the last two races, can he keep it up?

There is no way in hell Massa can win in Turkey. Kimi is in better form, the Brawn car is still superior overall, and the Red Bull will be very, very strong on this track as well. If RBR don’t mess up the strategy during Q and in the race, yet again, Sebastian V. will win it.

I agree that Massa probably won’t win in Turkey this year, the Brawns are just too competitive to not be favourites.

But to say that Kimi is in better form is ludicrous; even though the F60 is clearly more suited to Kimi’s style (last year was the opposite), Massa is still outpacing him consistently. The fact that he’s got one point less than Kimi is deceiving. He should have got two 3rd places already – in Melbourne and Barcelona, not to mention Shanghai quite possibly – and clocked the fastest lap in Monaco. Massa only finished behind Kimi because Jenson was brought in a couple of laps early precisely to halt his awesome pace (he was also threatening Rubens’ second place at that stage).

We need to wait till practice to see which team is better equipped to match brawn. Till now Ferrari and Red bull posed a threat to one of the Brawn’s beast (Only to Rubens,Button is untouchable at the moment). I think Kimi will have slight advantage over Massa. If Ferrari doesn’t make mistakes then they can challenge for 2nd. We cannot write off Red Bull though,they are the only team which posed serious threat to Brawn GP right from the start of season. It’s going to be a exciting race. May the Best team/driver win.

you will on Sunday that I have it right. Kimi will finish ahead of Massa on merit. Monaco shows who the best drivers are, and Kimi, albeit essentially indifferent this year due to his pending exit from F1, walked all over Massa there.

And when was the last time Massa won in Monaco ? The answer is never. The 4 best drivers of this decade, Michael, Fernando, Lewis and Kimi, have all won in Monaco.

Massa has done very well in Turkey, there is no denying this, but right now he is not in great form. I think next to Vettel, Kimi has a real shot at winning this race, which, by the way, he won too in 2006.

You kidding? That’s probably not what was going through Kimi’s head during the second stint, where he was losing an average of 0.2 seconds per lap with less fuel on board. The gap between them before Jenson slotted his Brawn in between them was just over 1 sec. Did you watch the same race I did, or you find it hard reading the times in F1?

I know arguing with someone like you is probably a waste of space, but I can’t resist. I’ve said this already on this website after the race, but Monaco 2008 was the luckiest race I’ve seen in years, with Lewis clinching victory not despite of his early mistake, but precisely BECAUSE of it! You probably don’t remember, but Massa snatched pole that race. You know what that means in Monaco, don’t you? Had that been a dry race he would’ve had it in the bag.

all of what the Badger says are well known. As much as Ferrari has developed, they are still not the fastest car. On this circuit, the race will be between Brawn and RBR. Vettel should be really fast here, and RBR won’t make the same mistakes in Q, I mean w/ fuel loads for the race. I think Vettel nneds to get pole to win the race, and I think he will do both. If a Ferrari gets on the podium, that will be Kimi, not Massa.